MMOs: Focus content for Groups or Individuals?

The lowest common denominator when it comes to MMORPG players is one. That occurence, the lone wandering gamer, has a 100% chance of appearing in any MMO. Sure, he may be an individual in a group or perhaps a whole bunch of groups but the one thing he can often be is on his own. It is for that reason that when designing my Neverwinter Online Foundry Quests I am balancing the encounters against what one person can handle, despite being able to bring up to four other people (plus their companion pets). Sure it will be easier in a group, but - isn't that the point? Strength in numbers.

I much prefer it that way than design content for five people which might then exclude the solo gamer. It seems the growing trend is to design for the maximum number though, with some instances (looking at you GW2) requiring multiple people through specific mechanics, like standing on pressure plates or pressing buttons simultaneously. That's pretty cool in a group, but there should always be a bypass for solo runners otherwise I just feel it is bad design. Heck, Warframe (which is a SHOOTER) does it - there's no excuse for an MMORPG not to. Personally I also feel that it's less of an accomplishment if I needed 79 people to help me bring down a dragon. That's just me.

I think part of the problem is the "shared" loot system some games have. In GW2, 80 of you kill a mighty dragon. Each of you gets 2 boxes (just an example). If you somehow managed to kill the thing alone you would still get the same 2 boxes, hardly worth the added risk and effort. My way of thinking, if you managed such an impressive feat alone you should get 180 boxes. The less of you there are, the harder the task but the more rewarding - and vice versa. Unfortunately due to the design, there will rarely be that much less of you since it's almost like you NEED a huge zerg to succeed. Huge zergs do form, but 100% of the time? Unlikely. That leads to simply ignoring the content if there aren't enough people around.

If you focus content for individuals, will it make people less likely to group? Yes and no. The people who like to group will still group up. Those that don't, won't. This is still a better design than anything with forced grouping which often leads to more unwilling participants and elitist bullying - "Change your armor! Change your skills!". No thank you, I'd like to play the game how I WANT TO PLAY IT, with MY OWN character, thanks. The elitists will still have a place with the individual focused content though, they'll be the ones saying - "hah, I did that solo". The ones that like min/maxing will be saying - "hah, my group did that in 5 minutes". The best part is, you won't ever have to group with any of them if you don't want to. Choice is a powerful and wonderful thing.